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Episode 1568 (29 January 1998)
Synopsis Sanjay decides to sue the police for wrongful arrest, but Neelam manages to talk him out of it. Everyone in the Square is talking about Ian's letter to the Gazette, writing that the hostel vandalism is something he doesn't condone but that it's an indication of the strength of public opinion. He wrote that the hostel is being supported by loony left dinosaurs in dog collars, and now he defends his comments by saying that he didn't mention anyone by name. Jeff reads it out to Alex with some hilarity and congratulates him. However, Alex doesn't seem to be seeing the funny side of it, and neither does Kathy when she reads it. Ian rushes into the café to ask Kathy to pick up the kids for him for Cindy's visit, because he has a crisis in the fish shop. She has no choice, but says darkly that she will speak to him later. Dot sees Alex and looks embarrassed. She says she will clean the church today. When Alex asks if anything is wrong, she just says "Numbers 32v23". Alex goes to the café and looks it up, chatting to Kathy meanwhile. He reads "Be sure your sins will find you out" and ponders a moment before saying it's probably Dot feeling guilty... or.. no, we're just getting paranoid aren't we? Dot hangs around the market and Mark asks what she's doing, and is she OK. She replies she wants a cup of tea, but Alex is still in the café, and he and Kathy are very close friends, aren't they. Mark shrugs and says "maybe, why shouldn't they be?" without a second thought. The cast list is posted, and there are sulks all round. Dot is horribly miffed that she's not Queen Victoria, but denies that she was interested when Roy asks her what part she got. Grant hears from Nigel that Peggy is not Queen Victoria. He tells her that it was because she's too common, but she's the publican's wife instead, and Nigel told him that's the best part anyway. Tiffany asks whether she got a part, and Grant says he didn't ask and anyway she'll be needed to serve if Peggy's off at rehearsals, and he's not doing it all. Roy asks Nigel who tells him his part is a big one. Roy says he's busy, and Nigel replies, OK, well it's a very small one then, to tell the truth he has no idea what any part involves, since he hasn't read the play. Dot meets Jeff in the Vic and he starts asking about children and how difficult it is to understand them as they don't tell you things. He says that he wonders where Alex gets it from, and he always thought that being a priest was running away from something. Dot goes on about few being chosen and those that are having a responsibility - which some of them don't manage to keep to. Jeff asks if they are talking about the same thing, and Dot says "You tell me." Jeff clarifies that it's a big shock to find out one's son is gay. Dot's eyes pop out and Jeff says she obviously doesn't think so. She says most certainly not. Jeff asks why she is so sure and she refuses to say, hurrying off in her characteristic way of fuelling suspicion and curiosity while insisting she herself remains "Not one to gossip, but..."! Tiff goes to discover she is Mrs Fossett, and Nigel is playing Mr F. Roy visits the Vic with Pat to celebrate, and tells Grant he's now virtually related, as Roy has the part of Peggy's husband. He adds that Pat has the plum role, as Queen Victoria. Peggy is horrified after Grant's comment earlier, and says that she heard the publican's wife was a much bigger role. Roy tells Peggy that Nigel just said that to please her, though he hasn't actually read the play at all. Peggy goes off in a huff, joining George as they're off to the funeral. They go to collect Annie, who is in bed. She has set the alarm wrong, for 1am instead of 1pm. George is very annoyed as she's still putting on her tights in the car when they arrive at the church. Peggy asks George for a run down on the people there as she doesn't know many people there. He says they're mainly those at the wedding, the only thing is that the elder son Beppe is separated and has a small boy - but don't mention the wife because she left them. There is a younger son Gianni and two daughters of approximately school age, one of whom (Teresa) has just failed her A-levels, her mother suspects deliberately, so she can carry on working in the restaurant instead of going off to be a doctor or a lawyer or something. Giuseppe's aged parents are there, and his father Bruno (who is Italian) wants to help carry the coffin, but the undertakers say it is too heavy, and his wife Luisa, who seems English, is concerned about his health. The recommendation is two undertakers and the two sons to carry the coffin. Giuseppe's wife Rosa looks and sounds fairly English, while the kids all look typically dark and broodingly Italian. Annie sees Gianni and comments lasciviously on how much he's grown. Giuseppe's mother adores George, and tells Peggy that he's a saint. Gianni clearly holds a markedly different opinion and objects when George suggests that what if six of them carry it - he and Bruno could do the middle of it. Gianni says it's supposed to be family, and everyone else shushes him. After the funeral Annie talks to Gianni and says the last time she saw him was when they were kids playing sardines in the parents' bedroom. She says she must have been 17 and he was... He says he's grown up a lot in the last ten years and is this really the place to discuss this? She says she always liked younger men, and thought of it as her duty to educate them, and she says it was his first kiss. He tells her, not the last though. He gets rid of Annie by saying she's lucky she's not saying this to his brother, as he might arrest her - he's in the Vice Squad now. Annie stops in her tracks, and Gianni walks off to another disaster - a flat tyre. This allows the family to gather round and argue a lot, bringing up all their grievances. George asks someone discreetly whether Gianni "knows" and apparently he doesn't. The widow, Rosa, moans that the restaurant can't go on as they are and they will have to talk about it soon. George says maybe they should cut their losses, and Gianni rises to argue that it's been the family business since they arrived, and they have all devoted their lives to it, and he says Bruno should be saying this. George says he discussed this with Giuseppe before he died, and they were planning to do something about it. George and Peggy and Annie drive off and Annie says that what Gianni didn't mention was that George has bailed them out loads of times for that poxy restaurant. George says that's not strictly true, and leave it. Dot comes to tell Nigel that she won't be in for her tea as she wants time on her own. Nigel and Julie exchange looks and Nigel says that they wouldn't want to waste her talents and need her for...script supervisor. She asks what this involves and they hastily decide it involves making sure the actors know their lines. She says it sounds like a prompter, but Nigel assures her it is a much more important job than that. She says perhaps she will have her tea with them, then, to discuss it. She runs into Alex while she's cleaning the church, and hastily stops vacuuming and says she'll leave him to it. When he asks if anything's the matter she asks if Matthew Chapter 7 Verse 1 means anything to him. He says yes, actually it does, "Judge not lest you be judged." She scurries off in her typically unjudgemental way. Cindy turns up to Ian looking as much like a workman as it is possible for him to, and she's sarcastic about it. She asks where the kids are and he says his mother is supposed to have brought them home but she hasn't turned up yet. Pat appears with the kids and tells Ian that Kathy isn't here because he's not her favourite person at the moment, and it's something about a letter. Cindy gloats that her meeting with the social worker went very well, and Ian pretends not to care. Soon after Cindy has left, Kathy turns up to have a go at Ian. She says that he had no right to send a letter with such nasty comments in it to the paper. He says patronisingly that it's politics and things get nasty. She waffles on about how he should imagine how Alex feels now, and Ian asks what it's got to do with her and why does she care? She deflects this saying that she is also suspicious about the bloke she saw him with the day before the hostel was vandalised. Ian looks guilty, and says that it's politics and you sometimes have to do things to get results. Kathy is disgusted and says she thought so but hadn't believed it of him, and now she's ashamed to call him her son. Ian is shocked by her emotional over-reaction, but still doesn't put two and two together or guess she's more emotionally involved with Alex than she pretends Credits Main cast *Sanjay Kapoor - Deepak Verma *Neelam Kapoor - Jamila Massey *Jeff Healy - Leslie Schofield *Ian Beale - Adam Woodyatt *Kathy Mitchell - Gillian Taylforth *Dot Cotton - June Brown *Mark Fowler - Todd Carty *Roy Evans - Tony Caunter *Grant Mitchell - Ross Kemp *Nigel Bates - Paul Bradley *Tiffany Mitchell - Martine McCutcheon *Peggy Mitchell - Barbara Windsor *Pat Evans - Pam St. Clement *George Palmer - Paul Moriarty *Annie Palmer - Nadia Sawalha *Bruno di Marco - Leon Lissek *Luisa di Marco - Stella Tanner *Gianni di Marco - Marc Bannerman *Rosa di Marco - Louise Jameson *Cindy Beale - Michelle Collins *Steven Beale - Stuart Stevens *Peter Beale - Alex Stevens *Lucy Beale - Casey Anne Rothery Guest cast * Julie Haye - Karen Henthorn Category:Episode Category:1998 Episodes